The present invention relates to a coated blade for microtome or, more particularly, to a coated blade for microtome having markedly improved durability, anti-corrosion resistance and cutting power and a method for the preparation thereof with high productivity.
Along with the progress in the medical and biological sciences in recent years, the importance of microscopic investigations is increasing more and more and many fine results are obtained as a consequence of the improvements in the performance of optical and electron microscopes and in related techniques. Needless to say, microscopic study of medical and biological materials is performed in many cases with a specimen of an extremely thin sliced section of the living body tissue prepared by use of a microtome and having a thickness of, for example, 50 to 100 nm. Various materials are used for the preparation of blades mounted on a microtome for such a purpose including metals, glass, sapphire and diamond. Microtome blades prepared of these materials and used as such have their respective disadvantages and problems. For example, metal-made microtome blades must have the edge redressed after each time of their use. Glass-made microtome blades are usually throwaway or disposable and any blade once used must be replaced with a new one having an acutely angled sharp edge newly formed by breaking a glass plate at the sacrifice of the efficiency of the microscopic examination works. Moreover, glass-made microtome blades must be prepared by the operator himself of the microscopes and still no reliable and reproducible results can be expected in each preparation. Sapphire-made microtome blades have relatively poor cutting power and durability for their expensiveness in comparison with metal- and glass-made blades. Diamond blades are, even though the performance as a blade may be satisfactory, very expensive because they are manufactured by handicraft of highly skilled artisans with low productivity.
In addition, some of the conventional microtome blades have a problem that striation or chatter marks appear on the sliced specimen therewith so that they are not always suitable for use in high-grade investigations in the medical and biological sciences. While it is not rare that the microscopic examination in the fields of recent medical and biological sciences requires an extremely thin sliced specimen having a thickness of 50 nm or smaller, in particular, such a thin specimen can hardly be prepared by use of conventional microtome blades with reliableness.